Don Johnson

November 9, 1986|By Edited by Sam Hodges and Michael McLeod

Okay, so you thought Don Johnson's only gift as a performer was his ability to grow sexy stubble. Well, you were wrong. There's a lot more to Johnson than his ability to look, you know, subtle, while doing, when you get right down to it, very little.

Johnson, famous for wearing stylish clothes and kicking in the occasional door as detective Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice, is becoming a serious musician.

This became quite apparent when his Heartbeat album came out and the cover wasn't done up in pastels. Actually, though, Johnson has made believers out of many former detractors (yes, even us) with the critical and popular success of Heartbeat. Johnson has said he'll probably do a concert tour and release another album next year. If he does well, he may make a transition usually considered all but impossible: from TV star to pop star.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Johnson is ''pals,'' as he phrases it, with Willie Nelson, Ronnie Wood, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan, all of whom can be heard on the album. And Tom Petty and Bob Seger wrote songs for Johnson to sing on the LP. Paula Hawkins could record a successful album with help like that.